Kerns: Museums honor military; Lawrence comedy opens Tuesday

Posted: May 30, 2010 - 1:35am

A bit of this and a bit of that, leading off with a confirmation that all active duty military personnel and their families will be admitted free to more than 600 museums nationwide — including at least three in Lubbock — from Monday’s Memorial Day through Labor Day.

The Museum of Texas Tech, Buddy Holly Center and Silent Wings Museum all now are Blue Star museums.

The Blue Star initiative finds museums partnering with the National Endowment for the Arts.

“There have always been wonderful examples of partnerships between museums and military installations, but the scale of this gift from the museum communities to military families is thrilling,” said Blue
Star Families chairman Kathy Roth-Douquet.

“Military families work hard for this country, and it is gratifying for us to be recognized for that. We anticipate that thousands of military families will participate in the program and visit museums this summer, many of them for the first time.”

The 600-plus museums are located in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

However, the Museum of Texas Tech is not the only museum that already is open to the general public at no charge all year.

But representative David Dean explained that Tech’s museum
“publicizes the Blue Star Museums initiative not because of the free admission, but as a gesture of solidarity in honoring our nation’s military personnel and their families. The museum wishes to be involved in such a worthy nationwide expression of appreciation for this group of citizens.”

Visit www.arts.gov for a full list of the nation’s participating museums.

D-Day event

In addition, the Silent Wings Museum commemorates the 66th anniversary of D-Day from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and from noon to 5 p.m. June 6, honoring the sacrifices made by Allied forces on the shores of Normandy in 1944.

The museum will unveil a new exhibit called “One Man’s War: The
Photographs of Friedrich Wilhelm Jakobsmeier” at 1 p.m. Saturday. It is a collection of rare photographs by a Lubbock resident who served in the Luftwaffe as a photographer and war correspondent in Sicily, Africa, Germany and France.

It will remain on exhibit through Aug. 22.

The Silent Wings Museum also will provide guest speakers, exhibits, opportunities to view the documentary film “D-Day Remembered,” children’s educational activities and interactive demonstrations by the U.S. 1st Infantry Division Living History Group and the World War II Airborne Demonstration Team.

The latter will offer rides in their authentic C-47 “Boogie Baby” for an undisclosed fee.

World War II aircraft provided by the Texas Air Museum in Slaton and the Blue Sky Air Field in Amarillo also will be on display Saturday
and June 6.

Call the Silent Wings Museum at 775-3331 for more details

'Clean-Up Woman’

In other news, a national touring production of the comedy “The Clean-Up Woman” will be staged one time only at 8 p.m. Tuesday at City Bank Auditorium, 2720 Drive of Champions.

Written and directed by J.D. Lawrence, the play features Lawrence in
seven supporting roles. Starring are professional actors Telma Hopkins, Christopher Williams, Ali Ollie Woodson and Jackee Harry.

The play has enjoyed mostly positive coverage in the Northeast and Deep South; the Dallas Black Academy of Arts & Letters confirmed by e-mail that a 2009 staging of “The Clean-Up Woman” broke attendance records that dated all the way back to 1977.

The show has been on the road for three years, according to writer-director-actor Lawrence, 38, whose speech impediment is noticeable during an interview.

In fact, he pointed out that he began acting “as a way to express myself, in terms of therapy.

Growing up in Brooklyn, N.Y., he said he wrote and starred in his
first play when he was 8 years old. He said, “I even got the Jiffy Pop out and sold my own concessions to keep everybody happy.”

However, his latest play, “The Clean-Up Woman,” was inspired by “a real friend who actually went through this ordeal.”

The urban comedy is about a female journalist who accepts a six-figure job that keeps her so busy that she has little time to work at home. Her husband is upset, so she hires a cleaning service to help out.

Little did she know that “the clean-up woman” would attempt to seduce her husband.

“Yeah, it wasn’t so funny back then when it was really going on, that’s for sure,” said Lawrence. “But after things settled down, I told my friend I thought I could turn it into a funny stage play, if it was OK with him.

“I took the story, changed things around and the couple approved the show. And it has since become a great date play, because it has a good message about people not communicating.”

Lawrence at one point labels himself “the Bill Cosby of urban life theater,” the term urban life seeming to signify black characters.
From his description of the play, the nickname might fit.

“It sounds racy, but it’s a very clean-cut play. There’s no violence and no cursing. No male bashing and no female bashing.

“That’s just how I was brought up. Besides, I have children of my own. They come to some of my shows, and I would not want to think of them sitting in the audience and being embarrassed by their dad.”

Lawrence never intended to write seven parts for himself. He explained, “There were actors who did not show up on time. When that happened, I fired them and took their roles. But in the process, I developed a breakout role for myself.

“People seem to love this one character named Scooter, who’s a 47-year-old rapper, which I never anticipated. Scooter is in only one scene, but he actually developed a following on the Internet.”

Telma Hopkins and Jackee Harry both have impressive film and television credits.

Meanwhile, Lawrence also is finalizing a deal to act in a television show called “Community Service” on the Gospel Music Channel.

He plays Sylvester, who goes to court for a parking violation. The judge turns out to be Sylvester’s ex-girlfriend, who, after a bitter blowup in the courtroom, assigns him 3,500 hours of community service.

That’s enough to provide vignettes for a season, but Lawrence’s hope
is that each week’s guest star will be a celebrity who was assigned community service in real life.

He is impressing more people these days, and he doesn’t even have to fix his own Jiffy Pop to keep everyone happy.

Talk about the movies at my blog Reel to Real. Or chat about theater, music, dance and visual arts at Center Stage, both blogs at lubbockonline.com.